jbvb wrote:Deciding to shut service down must be viewed in the light of the emergency response required to evacuate a crowded 6-car train stuck on an exposed, isolated, fenced segment of RoW. The traditional approach of bringing up another train had failed once, conspicuously and they'd been hit pretty hard in the press. One doesn't know what might have been passed down from the Gov. Fire & police could cross adjacent property, cut fences etc. but nobody wants to make a decision that might produce that level of crisis. And if someone died, on a train or leaving it, lawsuits would certainly follow.

Out of curiosity for anyone that knows, can the RL trackage handle any kind of diesel locomotive (like the 120ish tons of a GP-9/GP-40) and is there any place on the track network that a cutover exists? If it can handle it but there's no cutover, does it make sense to perhaps have one for the 1-in-20 year storm setups where the electric cars just can't do it anymore?

jbvb wrote:Deciding to shut service down must be viewed in the light of the emergency response required to evacuate a crowded 6-car train stuck on an exposed, isolated, fenced segment of RoW. The traditional approach of bringing up another train had failed once, conspicuously and they'd been hit pretty hard in the press. One doesn't know what might have been passed down from the Gov. Fire & police could cross adjacent property, cut fences etc. but nobody wants to make a decision that might produce that level of crisis. And if someone died, on a train or leaving it, lawsuits would certainly follow.

Out of curiosity for anyone that knows, can the RL trackage handle any kind of diesel locomotive (like the 120ish tons of a GP-9/GP-40) and is there any place on the track network that a cutover exists? If it can handle it but there's no cutover, does it make sense to perhaps have one for the 1-in-20 year storm setups where the electric cars just can't do it anymore?

One monkey that does belong on Governor Baker's back is the absurd burdening of the MBTA with Big-Dig debt. That marvelous "out of the box" (in this case insane) idea was Charlie Baker's. It's time to call him out on it and undo the provision. (

jgeary27 wrote:I'm sure there is a great behind-the-scenes story to this. It will be interesting to see how much of it ever leaks out to the public.

The reason for the MBTA's debt crisis is not a secret. It is the result of a time bomb set 15 years ago when the Legislature handed the MBTA $3 billion in debt, 20% of future sales tax receipts, and told it to get lost. It was obvious at the time that even given best-case projections of sales tax revenue growth, there wasn't going to be enough money. As it happened, the post-2001 economic downturn and the Great Recession hit consumer spending hard and made those projections look comical. So, the T has been forced into a cycle of reducing service and increasing fares just to service the debt. (One of the consequences, as noted, has been the inability to replace minor luxuries such as work cars and snow plows.) This situation is well known even by commuters who only casually follow politics.

Which, I think, is what makes this story interesting. Scott must have known about the grim financial picture before she took the job. The Patrick administration loved to make grand promises about future service improvements without ever providing specific details about how it would be paid for. Enter Baker, who publicly dings her for some admittedly questionable operational decisions. Exit Scott.

What really happened? Was there some sort of bailout or restructuring in the works under Patrick that's now dead? Was there an expectation of political help from the Baker administration (that would be insane) that he signaled is not forthcoming? I can't imagine that she would really walk out over getting called out by the Governor for shutting the system down for a day, but I guess stranger things have happened.

bierhere wrote:Can someone name any major accomplishment in the past 24 months? Because I can't. I'd agree the travel budget itself doesn't look out of line, but individual pieces of it are crazy. The excess luggage fees and laundry fees are completely unreasonable, if what was printed in the Herald is true and the context correct.

The current fault lies with the previous governor in my opinion. He had 8 years to improve the system and address the debt issue, and he failed. Why does Deval get a free pass?

I read somewhere that the GL extended. And that the CR has a bunch of new engines.

Not that extensions and new power is the be-all of accomplishments (running all trips would be pretty neat), but to ask a question like that seems to be either offensive or something else to me. Perhaps that's why no one else responded.

bierhere wrote:Can someone name any major accomplishment in the past 24 months? Because I can't. I'd agree the travel budget itself doesn't look out of line, but individual pieces of it are crazy. The excess luggage fees and laundry fees are completely unreasonable, if what was printed in the Herald is true and the context correct.

The current fault lies with the previous governor in my opinion. He had 8 years to improve the system and address the debt issue, and he failed. Why does Deval get a free pass?

I read somewhere that the GL extended. And that the CR has a bunch of new engines.

Not that extensions and new power is the be-all of accomplishments (running all trips would be pretty neat), but to ask a question like that seems to be either offensive or something else to me. Perhaps that's why no one else responded.

The GLX, HSP-46 engines, and Hyundai-Brokem coaches were all ordered > 24 months ago, I believe. And they are all late. And the GLX is not fully funded.

The T got through last winter (which wasn't particularly warm or snowless) without a crisis; given how brittle everything has been shown to be, that's an accomplishment. The new Red/Orange cars have been ordered, though that isn't out of the 'protest' woods yet and we won't know for several years if the process is still as broken as what produced the Bredas, Brokems & HSP-46s (I say broken, in that none of them were ready for reliable service anywhere near schedule - we don't know yet how the HSP-46s might perform as the core of the fleet). And Keolis taking over as CR contractor. Given the history, the funding & the environment, not bad for two years. As a lowly CR customer, I did appreciate finding that the toilet sinks once again had water, which MBCR had stopped supplying even in summer about 2010.

jbvb wrote:The T got through last winter (which wasn't particularly warm or snowless) without a crisis; given how brittle everything has been shown to be, that's an accomplishment. The new Red/Orange cars have been ordered, though that isn't out of the 'protest' woods yet and we won't know for several years if the process is still as broken as what produced the Bredas, Brokems & HSP-46s (I say broken, in that none of them were ready for reliable service anywhere near schedule - we don't know yet how the HSP-46s might perform as the core of the fleet). And Keolis taking over as CR contractor. Given the history, the funding & the environment, not bad for two years. As a lowly CR customer, I did appreciate finding that the toilet sinks once again had water, which MBCR had stopped supplying even in summer about 2010.

Well...

-- They also still have unfunded options unexercised on the Type 7 and K-car midlife overhauls. And that could come bite them in a shortfall. Realistically, if the pilot cars perform well and they are satisfied with the results they're going to need to drain all of those options immediately.

-- These Orange and Red cars have to perform well enough to drain the option orders on the Red portion. Otherwise the 01700's--fleet outliers as the last DC motored heavy rail cars which will be unable to trainline with anything except themselves at a maximum of 9 consists only--are going to have to push it longer. Yes, they are freshly rebuilt, but parts supply is going to draw a line in the sand on their viability at no later than a 2025 retirement and considerably lighter duty given the small numbers and need for keeping the wear-and-tear down on those increasingly scarce parts.

-- There's another commuter rail locomotive coming up for 2020 if they don't program replacements in the FY2016-2020 budget for replacing 35 F40PH-2C and F40PHM-2C locomotives and whatever quantity of 10-15 Geeps remain after the retirements are sorted out. The 2010 fleet plan (out-of-date now but still a sobering read on the procurement urgencies) stresses this, or we'll be right back where we started on power reliability. Plus I doubt they really want to keep the two MP36's, which are not exactly crew favorites and which are a lot more expensive to maintain as such small fleet outliers. That's an even bigger/scarier order than the HSP's. And could get thorny if the HSP's are not worth ordering a second batch of or MPI simply doesn't want to build them. Then it becomes a search for yet another new make and risk of the overcustomization fetish striking again. Given that it takes 5 years from RFP to delivery, the resources have to be muscled in the next 24 months or we start the countdown to more problems yet again.

-- All 200 (± 2) single-level coaches are up for simultaneous 2020 replacement. And they're hurt badly by the Brokems being such unreliable pieces of crap that the +75 option order is out-of-the question (which also leaves them with reduced number of restroom-equipped coaches to go around). That's a terrifyingly large order. And terrifying possibility of the overcustomization fetish and unproven low-bidder fetish striking again. Maybe you can push the Pullmans a couple years longer on the option portion of that replacement order, but the unrebuilt Bombardiers that are the going to be the bulk of the retirements are simply not going to hold up for another 10 years of punishment.

-- The Red Line 01800 rebuilds have to be programmed in the FY16-20 budget or we start having huge reliability issues there.

-- The new CAF trolleys need to have all their options drained before the Type 8's start having 20-year reliability issues that can't easily be addressed because of their dead-ender status as a failed make. There's a little more flex here because the 7's (when rebuilt and if well taken-care-of) are bulletproof enough to get conceivably pushed to PCC-level longevity and a well-padded fleet would allow for some selective cannibalization of Bredas akin to the early Boeing retirements to flush up the parts supply for the remaining fleet.

-- And then there's the work fleet. The folly of using revenue trains in work duty has been fully exposed here. It's wishful thinking that there's going to be enough viable wreck re-matings at the end of the Type 7 overhaul program to even replace the 2 ailing + 1 dead-as-a-doornail Boeing work cars, much less expand out the work fleet. You're pretty much counting on the CAF options getting drained to be able to free up enough extra 7's for a robust work fleet (and they would be pretty robust for the job since parts availability is still good and Kinki is still very much around for service/support help on its legacy product). There's nothing for Blue. And the DC motor parts issue makes keeping some Hawkers and 01500/01600's on work standby a pretty short-lived endeavor, since Bombardier decades ago told any Pullman/H-S/UTDC customers it swallowed that they're on their own. Work duty might even be a no-life endeavor on Orange if the Hawkers get declared a total loss for any afterlife like the Blue 0600's were. Maybe the 015's/016's on Red can squeeze it out a little longer with the trainlining with the 017's providing effective protection for ailing propulsion. But I doubt any of those DC heavy-rail motors have more than 5-8 years of afterlife left in them.

-- You would, because of the limited punishment the revenue fleet is capable of taking in work duty, also need to take procurements of all-new work equipment for every line. Does that 50-tonner at Cabot even work? If it's out there at all working the line for this snow clearing effort it's somehow eluded all sightings. Probably talking a procurement of a half-dozen gensets to cover the heavy-duty needs like snow plowing or running a ballast train where it's suicidal to push the revenue fleet too hard. One for Orange, one for Blue, at least two for Green, and one for Red additional to the 50-tonner. Or two and sell off the 50-tonner if there's nobody left who knows how to maintain that custom-built thing. The MTA keeps a good-sized diesel fleet...even for subway work (gensets would work particularly well in the tunnels with their throttling ability). And you've got to look at the same for commuter rail. Workhorse Geep 3247 is ancient, and they have to rely on it way too much for how ancient it is. Venerable old 904 is great at what it does, but the T doesn't have the resources to keep a single GP9 running forever. The two GP40MC work mods are laughable for how poorly they're going to behave in that role. And they avoid maintaining the gensets like the plague...which is probably more a staffing issue than anything else because those N-ViroMotive 3GS21B's are (I think) the #1 most popular genset make currently in-production (>180 units in-service with large fleets operated by BNSF, UP, and CSX). Time to start scouring the GP40-2# aftermarket like NJ Transit's dispersal units which are getting much more conventional and time-tested work mods, and time to get serious about the commitment to using those gensets. Hell, there are smaller N-ViroMotive makes that would probably be light enough and appropriately-rated for the rapid transit lines if they wanted to standardize all 4 rapid transit lines AND commuter rail on one common family of gensets for work fleet scale.

The consequences of not addressing ALL of these equipment purchases, rebuilds, and option order executions manifests itself in the next 8-10 years. And the consequences for not budgeting in the next 2 (!) to 5 years. If anything the pressure cooker semi-relieved by the recent orders underway and just inked reloads itself to critical pressure almost instantaneously. Everything converges on that FY2016-2020 range where everything must be in some early (budgeting/RFP) or late (design/delivery) stage of procurement all at once.

Beverly Scott, the general manager of the transit authority, said Tuesday afternoon in a conference call with reporters that she would have a plan by Wednesday for the steps that the transit authority would take to restore service. She added that progress would be only incremental.

“It’s like a war, and we’re taking this back station by station, line by line, switch by switch,” she said.

Too late...Baker was Weld's mental hospital slashing czar in '92 when Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, Danvers State Hospital and Boston State Hospital were closed...the lucky ones ended up in halfway houses, transfered to now shuttered Medfield State Hospital etc, the unlucky ended up homeless, in prison or worse. OT, sorry, couldn't resist. http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=206399